10 Indian CEOs among world's most-influential chief executives

Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon came first in the CEOWORLD magazine's global ranking of the best chief executives across all industries for 2019.

Richest Indian Mukesh Ambani, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) chairman Sanjiv Singh and ONGC head Shashi Shanker are among the 10 Indian CEOs named in the CEOWORLD magazine's global ranking of the world's most-influential chief executives in 2019.

ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal is the highest-ranked Indian CEO but the ranking lists his company as a Luxembourg-based firm.

While Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh Ambani was ranked 49th on the list, Singh was ranked 69th.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) chairman and managing director Shashi Shanker was ranked 77th in the list of 121, according to the list published by the magazine.

Other Indian CEOs on the list included State Bank of India (SBI) chairman Rajnish Kumar (ranked 83th), Tata Motors CEO Guenter Butschek (89th), BPCL chairman and managing director D Rajkumar (94th), Rajesh Exports executive chairman Rajesh Mehta (99th), Tata Consultancy Services CEO Rajesh Gopinathan and Wipro chief executive Abidali Z Neemuchwala (ranked 118th).

Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan retweeted a link of the CEO ranking.

"Unsurprisingly, Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon came first in the CEOWORLD magazine's global ranking of the best chief executives across all industries for 2019," the publication said.

"He is followed by Royal Dutch Shell's global chief executive Ben van Beurden, and ArcelorMittal chairman and CEO Lakshmi Mittal."

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin H Nasser is ranked No. 4.

"Sanjiv Singh, @ChairmanIOCL, makes it to the 100 most influential Chief Executives across industries as per @ceoworld magazine," IOC tweeted.

ONGC also tweeted, saying, "Shashi Shanker, @CMD_ONGC, makes it to the 100 Most Influential Chief Executives across industries as per @ceoworld magazine."

The 2019 rankings placed BP's chief executive, Bob Dudley in fifth ahead of ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods into sixth; while Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess ranked seventh, and Toyota Chief Executive Akio Toyoda eighth.

Overall, among the top-10 most influential CEOs in the world 2019, the ninth and 10th positions are held by Apple CEO Tim Cook and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffet.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos took the No. 11 spot, followed by the UnitedHealth Group CEO David Wichmann (No.12) and Samsung Electronics chief executive Kim Ki-Nam (No.13).

Out of 121 best CEOs in the world 2019, Chevron CEO Michael K Wirth ranked No. 20th, it added.

"CEOWORLD magazine's global ranking of the best chief executives for 2019 measured more than 1,200 CEOs across 96 countries.

“Taking a long view of business performance, the methodology is primarily based on the financial returns for the CEO's entire tenure, which makes up 60 per cent of the final ranking, as opposed to stock price and the current quarter's numbers," the publication said.

To calculate the final position, the additional 40 per cent of a CEO's ranking factors in a company's track record on environmental, governance, and social issues, as well as market shares, change of market capitalisation, and brand's newsworthiness and the impact was taken, it added.

Photograph: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters